French climbers Mathieu Maynadier, Bletton Antoine, Pierre Labbre and Sebastien Ratel have made the ascent of a new route on the southwest face of Latok II. They seized the route in a brief spell of good weather after spending 24 days at basecamp.

The lower part of the face involved ice climbing hampered by spindrift. This was followed by mixed ground and snow pitches leading to a final wall, which the climbers dealt with via a gully line.

The team completed the route at 6pm on their third day of climbing. They finished at a point that could be called the southwest summit, which they estimated to be about 100m below the true summit of Latok II.